Sunday, June 9, 2013

Shortz Feature Film?

Name a movie in two words — five letters in each word.
Both words start with vowels. Take one letter in the first word, move it
two spaces later in the alphabet, and rearrange the result. You'll get
the second word in the movie's title. What movie is it?

Magdalen here. Many thanks to Ross, who--in addition to having to do everything while I've been sick--pinch-hit on the blog.

I know, I've been sick a lot. Here's the short version of events: I had gallbladder attacks in early March, scheduled what should have been a routine operation in mid-April, only it wasn't routine and I didn't recover as quickly as I should, perhaps because there was some infection in my liver that jumped into my right lung where it got really, really big. Here's the crazy part: I never ran a fever. So much for the one symptom I might have noticed at home to suggest something was wrong! Anyway, when I suddenly had severe pain in my chest, Ross drove me to the ER. Ten days later, I was released from the hospital, and ten days after that, I'm blogging again, albeit with an IV-antibiotics bag running 24/7.

If anyone asks, my husband is a saint. Just saying.

Okay, photos. This is a hint-free post, so all I've done is take each of the movie title's words and plugged them into Flickr to see what comes up.

Time for

This is where we ask you how many entries you think NPR will get for the
challenge above. If you want to win, leave a comment with your guess
for the range of entries NPR will receive. First come first served, so
read existing comments before you guess. Or skip the comments and send
an email with your pick to Magdalen (at) Crosswordman (dot) com. Ross
and I guess last, just before we publish the Thursday post. After the
Thursday post is up, the entries are closed. The winner gets a puzzle
book of our choosing or a contribution to The One Fund Boston (or the American Red Cross, currently helping communities hit by tornadoes) in the winner's honor.

Confession: We slept through the actual broadcast, so I have no idea how many people correctly guessed IRK VEX BUG (I certainly hadn't). Good thing we weren't running the Pick a Range last week! We are now, though, so leave your pick in the comments and let
us know. And please, no hints in the comments. Thanks!

Our tie-break rule: In the event
that a single round number is announced with a qualifier such as
"about" or "around" (e.g., "We received around 1,200 entries."), AND two
separate people picked the ranges of numbers just before and just after
that round number, the prize will be
awarded to whichever
entrant had not already won
a prize, or in the event that
both entrants had won a
prize already or neither had,
then to the earlier of the
two entries on the
famous judicial principle of
"First Come First Serve,"
(or in technical legal jargon,
"You Snooze, You Lose"). As of July 2012, this rule is officially no longer obsolete (and also I just like having fine print).

Magdalen, glad you are back and blogging again and hope your full recovery comes quickly.

Couldn't think of the movie title during my run this morning because I had it wrong. I thought a particular letter in the first word had to change, not any letter. Once I got home and read the actual puzzle, the answer came without too much trouble.

I may have to abandon my normal range (forever?, i hope not) and go 501 to 550.